Life, 1896-10-01 · page 3 of 18
Life — October 1, 1896 — page 3: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis of "The Milliner's Nightmare" This is a fictional story titled "The Milliner's Nightmare" set at Tiddly-Winks-by-the-Sea, a seaside hotel. The accompanying illustration depicts skeletal, ghostly figures dancing or moving chaotically in a dark cavern-like space, while a man sits observing on the left. The narrative concerns a hotel proprietor named Dreistein who enforces strict quarantine rules against "Hebrews." When confronted by a deformed hunchbacked guest, Dreistein makes a pointed remark about the hotel's anti-Jewish policy. The hunchback responds with dark humor, claiming he can "keep a secret" about being Jewish. The satire appears to mock both discriminatory hotel practices and the absurdity of enforcing such prejudicial policies. The "nightmare" imagery suggests the proprietor's anxiety about his exclusionary practices being exposed or challenged.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
VOLUME XXVIII NUMBER 718 AT TIDDLY-WINKS-BY-THE-SEA, HE season at Tiddly-Winks had not been over-successful. The genial proprietor of Tiddly-Winks Inn had enforced the regulation against Hebrews strenuously, but the Christian element had not responded as he had expected. Asa result he had intimated to his clerks, to- wards the end of the summer, that if any of the chosen people who looked profitable ap- peared, they should not be scrutinized too closely. Mr. Dreistein, who is well-known in the cloak line, happened down the coast, and hearing of the quarantine at Tiddly-Winks was seized with the characteristic longing of his race to evade it. Greatly to his suprise he was not informed after he had registered that the house was full. For a day or two he strutted the piazzas in his full panoply of diamonds and gold-rimmed pince-nez. But his proud secret burned within him. Fi- THE MILLINER'S NIGHTMARE. nally he sat down at the end of the piazza, in a vacant chair, next a dwarfed and hump-backed gentleman who was looking at the sea-scape. Dreistein ventured a remark about the weather which received a court- cous reply. Finally, Dreistein, bursting with pride, went further. “My tear sir,” he said, ‘‘can you keep a segret?” “1 fancy so,” replied the deformed man. “Vell, I must tell you a good choke. You know der rule in this hotel about Hebrews?” oon, “Vell, Ivas a Jew myselluf.” And a broad smile of conscious cleverness inundated Drei- stein's curved beak and other features. “Can you keep a secret?” asked the other. “ Zertainly,” replied Dreistein, “I can keep anything that comes my way.” “Well,” said his new acquaintance, ‘don't you tell a soul on earth, but I'm a hump-back.” THE TEUTONSEMBLE, comicbooks.com